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Last Updated: 04 June 2015

CWN - Four months before the next Synod of Bishops on the family, the Eastern Catholic bishops of Europe have gathered at a Czech monastery to discuss the family.

The meeting is not open to journalists, according to the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe.

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Last Updated: 03 June 2015

CWN - As the forces of the Islamic State advance in Syria and Iraq-- with millions of Iraqis in flight, in the words of L’Osservatore Romano's June 3 front-page headline-- the Melkite Greek Catholic archbishop of Syria’s largest city begged the West to intervene.

“ISIS, which has already killed thousands in the region, is terrifying the faithful in Aleppo,” said Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart of Aleppo. “After Maloula, Mosul, Idleb, and Palmyra, what is the West waiting for before it intervenes? What are the great nations waiting for before they put a halt to these monstrosities?”

Archbishop Jeanbart recently returned from a trip to the United States and found that his archdiocesan headquarters had been destroyed, and his cathedral severely damaged, as Syrian rebel forces attacked the Christian area of the city.

“Thanks to God all my priests escaped unharmed from the rebels’ bold attack on our archdiocese, with bombs raining down on the Christian quarter, home to numerous churches, much of the violence coinciding with the commemoration of the centennial of the Armenian genocide,” he said.

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Last Updated: 02 June 2015

CWN - Four days before Pope Francis’s apostolic journey to Sarajevo, the Holy See Press Office has released a video message from the Pontiff to the Catholics of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“I come among you, with the help of God, to confirm the faith of the Catholic faithful, to support the ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, and above all to encourage peaceful coexistence in your State,” said the Pope, who added that he will arrive on June 6 as a “brother” and “messenger of peace.”

Serbian forces besieged Sarajevo during the Bosnian War (1992-95), which followed Bosnia and Herzegovina’s declaration of independence from Yugoslavia. Over 57,000 soldiers and 38,000 civilians perished in the war.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is now a nation of 3.9 million that is 40% Muslim, 31% Eastern Orthodox, and 12% Catholic.

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Last Updated: 02 June 2015

CWN - A Catholic parish in Le Havre and a Russian Orthodox church in Cormeilles-en-Parisis were desecrated in recent days.

In addition, an attempt was made to break into the tabernacle of a parish in Montivilliers, which like Le Havre and Cormeilles-en-Parisis is located in northern France. According to a local media report, “cabalistic signs” were found on the altar cloth.

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• Un ciboire et des hosties volés dans l’église Saint Michel au Havre (France 3)
• Statement by bishop of Le Havre
• Profanation et vol à l’église de Cormeilles-en-Parisis (Archevêché des Églises Orthodoxes Russes en Europe Occidentale)

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Last Updated: 02 June 2015

The efforts of the influential Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo to promote a more moderate Islam are “commendable,” according to an analysis published on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Sunni scholars gathered at Al-Azhar at the end of May and are drafting a document intended to promote a more moderate “renewal” within Islam.

“Many terrorist groups, spread nowadays almost everywhere, give since some years a dark image of Islam all over the world,” according to the analysis on the patriarchate’s website. “An appeal to such a ‘renewal’ is commendable; it is an attempt to raise the voices of those who believe in a moderate Islam.”

The analysis cautioned, however, that one does not know “how this document could be applied in a vast and diversified Muslim world, where there is no genuine central authority, without forgetting the schism, almost unbridgeable, between Sunnis and Shiites.”

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Last Updated: 02 June 2015

CWN - The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church has issued regulations that tighten bishops’ authority over male and female monasteries.

Monasteries will be required submit names of prospective monks and nuns to the patriarch for his approval, according to L’Osservatore Romano. Before new monasteries are established, permission must first be secured from the patriarch or local bishop.

The synod, an administrative body that governs the church, also encouraged engaged couples to take classes in “spiritual preparation” before marriage.